three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

marma-lade · 2025-09-04 22:23:32

I have a laptop with a defect: the internal network card's connectors have come loose. So I bought a USB wireless adapter. Okay, I bought a few. Two of them use the Realtek RTL8812AU chipset, which I guess is a problem in Linux.

I tried to install Devuan 5, but when it got to the page where wireless/Ethernet is configured, I was shown a page with a hundred or more adapters/chipsets, at which point my eyes glazed over. Then I tried Debian 13 and its wireless/Ethernet page was straightforward: I had a choice of configuring the internal card or the external USB adapter.

Question 1: Was one of the Devuan choices the one to choose for the Realtek RTL8812AU? If so, what was the text and how far down the list was it?

Question 2: Why didn't Devuan use the Debian logic for wireless, given that it's a Debian fork? Is that logic infested with systemd?

Question 3: Why is the Realtek RTL8812AU chipset such an orphan in the Linux world? I tried a number of distributions, with most not recognizing the chipset. Does Realtek release Linux drivers for some chipsets and not others?

Altoid · 2025-09-04 23:54:34

Hello:

marmalade wrote:

Why is the Realtek RTL8812AU chipset such an orphan in the Linux world?

Who knows?
Maybe some chipsets are prettier/shinier than others?

Not the first and won't be the last.

See here: https://github.com/morrownr/8812au-20210820
Maybe there's some useful information for you.

Best,

A.

GNUser · 2025-09-05 12:53:15

Hi marma-lade. The RTL8812AU chipset is not an orphan in the linux world: Developers of the rtw88 driver have been hard at work to support this chipset. As of linux kernel version 6.14, the driver is in pretty good shape (Devuan Excalibur uses kernel 6.12.27 by default).

You can read more about the RTL8812AU chipset here:
https://github.com/morrownr/8812au-2021 … me-ov-file

If you want a trouble-free experience with WiFi usb adapters on Excalibur, I suggest you go with one of these devices:
https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/bl … rt_List.md

P.S. Keep in mind that even the chipsets that are well supported in GNU/Linux (i.e., those that have an in-kernel driver that you don't need to install separately), you still need to obtain the proprietary firmware required by the device. You can achieve this either by installing the .deb package that contains the firmware, or by downloading the specific firmware files you need from here:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke … e.git/tree

GNUser · 2025-09-05 13:06:53

Why didn't Devuan use the Debian logic for wireless, given that it's a Debian fork? Is that logic infested with systemd?

I'm not sure what you mean by "logic" here, but wireless support has to do with firmware, driver, and kernel.

Init system is not relevant to WiFi. Distro is only relevant to WiFi insofar as different distros ship with different kernel versions.

fsmithred · 2025-09-05 14:52:18

Your description of the debian installer's network setup is what I see when I use the devuan installer on a laptop. I don't know how you got to the screen you described. I do know that near the beginning of the devuan install there's a screen that asks you to supply firmware on a separate usb stick, and in most cases you should ignore that and continue. But that comes before the screen that lets you choose the interface to set up.

marma-lade · 2025-09-06 17:26:36

I downloaded another ISO and used it to start another installation. The same thing happened. There was no screen asking me for a firmware .deb. The text on the aforementioned screen was: "No Ethernet card was detected.If you know the name of the driver needed by your Ethernet card, you can select it from the list."

And BTW, this laptop is one year old, has an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, has 16 GB of RAM, has no Ethernet port, and has an internal Realtek network card with no connection to the antenna. The Linksys WUSB6300 v2 (with Realtek RTL8812AU) USB wireless adapter was inserted into one of the USB A ports which works for other things. A USB flash drive was inserted into a hub which was inserted into the USB C port, with the drive containing the necessary Realtek .deb.

It is possible that the very long list of entries contains one for Realtek 8812a, but I looked again and did not see it. The last entry in the list is "none of the above," which I hoped would bring me to a screen asking for a .deb, but selecting it only brings me back to the long list.

Maybe I'll try again with Devuan 6, but for now I'll use Debian. Thanks for everyone's help.

Last edited by marma-lade (2025-09-06 17:28:02)

greenjeans · 2025-09-06 17:37:01

Ouch! One year old and it already broke the network adapter internally? Yikes. And no ethernet port to fall back to (brilliant design that). Can you just share the make/model so folks know not to buy 'em?

marma-lade · 2025-09-06 19:12:13

UPDATE: I installed Debian 13. The line referring to my USB wireless adapter was: wlx80691a5b3dd6: Wireless ethernet (802.11x). This line was NOT included in the long list Devuan provides. I include this just in case someone wants to track it down.

@greenjeans The laptop is an HP, model # 17-cp3000, bought directly from HP. The problem with the internal network card is that the connectors that look like a Target corporate logo fell off the card, and I tried and tried to reconnect them, but I failed. BTW, it's my impression that many of the laptops being sold today have no cd-rom drive or Ethernet port so the laptop can be made trendily (is that a word?) thin. I have an HP laptop from 12 years ago and it's wonderful. I wish I could go back in time and buy another one.

greenjeans · 2025-09-06 19:17:05

Right there with ya my friend, running a couple of HP laptops from 2012-2013 here and they've been great, so sorry they ham-handed your new laptop, that's got to be hugely frustrating.

I keep thinking I need a newer laptop, but then I read various horror stories about new stuff, seems like the cutoff date for quality is around 2015 or so.

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#1 2025-09-04 22:23:32

three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#2 2025-09-04 23:54:34

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#3 2025-09-05 12:53:15

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#4 2025-09-05 13:06:53

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#5 2025-09-05 14:52:18

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#6 2025-09-06 17:26:36

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#7 2025-09-06 17:37:01

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#8 2025-09-06 19:12:13

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

#9 2025-09-06 19:17:05

Re: three questions regarding Realtek RTL8812AU

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